Characterization of damping in 3D metal printed gear body using parameter optimization

With the rapid development of the global economy and the widespread use of high-speed machinery, vibration and noise pollution is becoming increasingly serious. The increased energy costs, environmental pollution, and carbon emissions have prioritized sustainable development for industry. As an important link of mechanical transmission, the gear transmission vibration and noise adversely affect the physical and mental health of operators and interfere with the normal use of machinery. This paper proposes a new metal 3D printing-made vibration-damping lightweight gear model. The solid gear web is replaced with a lightening hole structure that is expected to ensure rigidity and torsional compliance while controlling the damping effects of the gear web structure. Gears were manufactured from an additive manufacturing material using a metal 3D printing technique. This work advanced an experimental analysis of the dissipation properties of metal printed gear exploiting vibration tests. A gear frequency-sweeping excitation test bench was designed and developed to simulate in-plane excitation to produce a circumferential torsional mode of the specimen. Circumference damping estimates are guided by executing vibration exciter excitation on the setup. The half-power bandwidth and modal fitting methods were arranged and compared, relying on the measured frequency response function (FRF) single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) approximation.